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The Root Server System

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There are 12 independent root server operators that manage 13 root identities across the globe. The ICANN organization runs one of these root identities – the ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS). These identities represent over 1,500 individual servers, each providing identical information from the root zone to DNS resolvers all over the world.

What is the Root Zone?

The root zone holds referral information for top-level domains, which points to their domain name system servers to help resolve your device's request.

Root Server System Infographic

Interested in how it works? Explore ICANN organization's infographic here.

Root Service and You

  • ICANN encourages qualified network operators to host IMRS instances in your country, territory, or region to serve root data.
  • Other root server operators have programs that allow network operators to manage a root zone instance locally.
  • Running an instance helps improve the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet's DNS infrastructure in your country, territory, or region.

Learn More

Read ICANN org's overview of the Root Server System here.

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."